Energy Nexus Volume 11, September 2023, 100233 Under a Creative Commons license open access Keywords Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus Iraq Environment Sustainability Food security water resources 1. Introduction Since 2015 demonstrations during summer in oil-rich Basra, a city of roughly four million people in southern Iraq, have become a regular occurrence, with a public frustrated at the lack of public services, including clean water and electricity, and unemployment ([55]:1).